CHANGE OF SUBJECT

Change Of Subject

August 19, 2007|By Eric Zorn

As I was reporting last week on all the argle-bargle and foofaraw in Springfield I realized that it was difficult to find a list of e-mail addresses for our state lawmakers, such as Senate President Emil Jones. Each member of the General Assembly has their own page on the state's Web site, but the contact information doesn't include e-mail addresses.

The Illinois State Board of Elections' Web site is much better (it can also tell you which lawmakers represent your district, in case you've somehow forgotten that generally useless scrap of information), but in the interest of public service I've posted to chicagotribune.com/zorn the simplest comprehensive list of such addresses.

Will they ignore your input or even read it? Would it make any difference at all if you convinced your rank-and-file legislator of the correctness of your views, given how centralized and concentrated power is in state government? I dunno.

Write to jones@senatedem.state.il.us and ask.

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Ink us in: Tattoo purists seek commitment

Given how often we hear that tattoo removal is a huge business and an expensive, painful, lengthy proposition, you'd think that unanimous rejoicing would be greeting the news that newfangled ink scheduled to hit parlors this fall will make it comparatively easy to erase regrettable instances of body art.

But no. Certain tattoo purists are staunch on the permanence issue. To them, easy-off tattoos are for poseurs who lack the essential commitment behind a real tattoo. It all forces us to consider a fundamental question about tattoos that I'll be discussing with readers online this week: What is the point, anyway?